Krista, live in Concert

Krista is 6th from the right bottom row

The sunday after Thanksgiving, Krista had her choir concert at the assembly hall (Temple Square). She tried out and made the Riverton Children Concert Choir this fall and they had their Christmas concert. She loves to sing and perform for any and all who will listen. After the concert since we were already there we walked around temple square to see the lights.

Monday night we had her piano recital, again anyone who wants to listen; she is more then happy to play. She is getting really good (if I do say so myself) and so far she still loves it. She has a wonderful teacher who loves teaching her. No it's not me!

Thanksgiving

Kirk and Krista

Grandpa and Grandma with the Grandkids

all 10 Grandkids

Jared, Krista and Justin

I am glad for many things, many things, many things; I am glad for many things that are mine today.

Thank you, Thank you my heart sings, my heart sings, my heart sings, Thank you for the many things, that are mine today.

We sang that song in Primary today then listed some of the things we were thankful for. Too many to list on a blog.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. This year we spent Thanksgiving in Sunny St. George, it was cool on Thurs, but that didn't stop the boys from playing football for 3 hours. I think the "older boys" realized they are "older". We didn't have much "leftovers", which means we were a bunch a little piggies around the table.

On Sat. before we left to come home we took everyone up to the red hill for some family pictures. I don't have all the pictures I want, but some from my little camera turned out pretty good.

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and took a minute to be grateful for all that you (and I) do have.

I've Been Tagged!

So I haven't updated for awhile, couldn't find time, I guess. So while waiting for my friend to come by I decided to catch up on some family blogs. I noticed reading one that my cousin Amberly decided to help me update by blog by tagging me.

8 t.v. shows I watch...
Biggest looser
the News
what not to wear
the design team
BYU football games
Utah Jazz games
And I really don't watch t.v. so I'm having a hard time with coming up with 8.

8 Favorite Restaurant...

Mark Anthony's
Cafe' Rio
Olive Garden
Apple Bees
Chilies
Texas Roadhouse
Godfathers Pizza
Zuppa's

8 Things that Happened Yesterday...

Justin made the 9th grade Basketball team
I did vision screening at the middle school
I substituted at the middle school
Kirk worked from home all day
Justin applied for a job as a Jr. Jazz Ref.
I thought I piano lesson
I made hot pocket from scratch
I helped the scouts with their family life merit badge

8 Things I'm Looking Forward To...

Going to St. George for Thanksgiving
Going to Lunch with my friends
Watching Justin and Jared play basketball
Going to Hawaii in March
Seeing my family (cousins included)
Sleeping in on Sat.
Parent/teacher conf. after school
Christmas

8 Things I Love about Fall...

Apple Pie
The Colors
Thanksgiving
The Colors
Family
The Colors
Falling Leaves
The Colors

8 Things On My Wish List...

Warmer Weather
A Better Master Bathroom
Justin to Make the High School Soccer Team
Jared to like to Read
Krista to Continue Singing and Piano
Kirk to be less Stressed (He saw me put that one on)
More Vacation Time

8 People I'm Tagging...

Paula Wallace
Staci Lambert
Heather Jeppson
Mandy Bollinger
Jeff and De

Who else hasn't been tagged

2nd best in the state

Well, we finish up playing (watching) Justin play in the state cup. His team did a great job, they have played in the state cup games before but have never made it was far as they did this time. They played so well together, and we had so much fun watching them. They have come a long way in the couple of years we've had this new coach. They can't complain about a silver medal in a state tournament. There were 16 other teams in his age group and they came out being number 2. Next year they will be looking for that number one spot. Had they won they would have gone to So. Cal. in June. With the silver they may go as a team on a wild card. If not they are in line to play in Washington State is summer.

State Cup Game one. USA Red 4 Rampage 1
State Cup Game 2, USA Red 0 Rangers 0
State Cup Game 3, USA Red 2, Rage 0

What a great few games. It's exciting to watch. The team is really playing well. Last Sat. was cold and windy but it was a great start to the State Cup. Wed. game was not how we really play. I thought the boys looked sluggish. Justin was sick and had missed practice the day before so he only played a few minutes of the game. Todays game, was great; except when the other team took out our goalie and he ended being taken to the hospital in a ambulance. We had nice weather, and the boys really stepped up and played hard with out our normal goalie. The win today placed us in first place to go into the Quarter Finals on Mon. with a win there we would play Thursday in Semi-Finals and Saturday in the Finals. Watch out soccer world, here we come.

What A Weekend!

What a weekend, where do I start?
Fri. was our Anniversary, we've been married for 16 years. That seems like a long time, but then I think no it's not really that long. I was single longer then that.
We decided not to really celebrate, since Sat. morning Krista was being baptized. So here's what we did instead.
Mom and Dad came up on Thurs, watched Jared's football game thurs. night and went to stay at Shelle's house.
Fri. morning mom went with her sisters and dad came up here to help me. We got a lot done, it was cold and suppose to be getting colder, so dad helped me with the garden and getting things ready for Krista's big day.
Because Justin had a State Cup soccer game (at 12:00), we decided to have a breakfast before the baptism. Not a lot of people came, which meant I had more food then would be eatten. I guess that's okay, more for later.
We had the baptism at 10:00 and by 11:15 Justin, Kirk, Grandpa, Jeffy and Joshua were on the road to Orem to the soccer game. The rest of us cleaned up, and then Grandma, Jared and I went to see the second half of the soccer game. The others went out to Shelle's and got things ready for an evening out there. Justin's team won 4-1. Justin even made a goal. Because of the position he plays (mid-field) he doesn't get the chance very often to score.
After the game we had some lunch and went out to Shelle's. Everyone went to a karate thing they were doing and wanted everyone to see. They did a really good job, Erika was really fun to watch. After that we had a nice warm bowl of soup at Shelle's and then came home. It turned out to be a day packed with as much as we could get in. I think everyone was very tired by the end of the day.
Sunday was church and then because Jeff and De were staying the night, Kirk arranged to take me some place for our anniversary. We went to the Castle Creek Inn. It's a bed and breakfast. We stayed in the garden room. It was nice to just relax after the big day we had Sat.

Fall is for Football

Jared decided this year to turn in his soccer cleats and try out some football cleats. We decided to have him try flag football before he went to the tackle. He has had a great time. He's really good, and plays a great QB. His team has won every game until tonight. They lost by 1 touch down. It's been fun to see him play and get excited about doing good. Maybe I'll have to cave and let him do tackle, I don't know.

Musical beds

Over labor day we labored at our house. Kirk went to help a friend move a Murphy bed from her grandma's house. It was going to be just a quick move; undo the bed from the wall, haul it to the truck, set it up at the Smith's house. Not as quick as they thought. Kirk and Bryon went to get the bed and along with the bed came the chest to match. Not to bad, except that grandma was giving Angie both Murphy beds and both chest to match. So they got both bed taken apart, and loaded into the truck, and both of Angie's vans. Yes, it took all 3 cars. They got to the Smith's and decided no room for 2 at their house, one would have to come to our house. So, with the help of my friend Ann, who was spending the weekend with us, we started taking apart, "grandpa's room" so we could put the bed in there. Krista go all excited and said "so I get the Murphy bed" I said no, we were putting it in grandpa's room. she reminded me, that when we had decided not to move a couple of months ago, Kirk and I had told her we would redo her room for her. She talked us into redoing grandpa room for her since it was a little bigger. I had forgotten all that, so we quickly, moved grandpa's bed and things into the hall, moved Krista's bed, dresser, doll house, and toys into grandpa's room and when Kirk got here to put the Murphy bed in, he wasn't sure he was in the right house. We then went downstairs to Justin's room, took apart his bed, and set grandpa's old bed up in his room. Mind you, we cleaned walls and carpets as we did all this. So, now Justin has the big queen bed, the Murphy bed is in Krista's (old) room, and Krista's stuff is in grandpa's (old) room. Jared was feeling kinda cheated, so I told him, his room would be the first to be redone. Krista would have to live with sport wallpaper for a while, and grandpa and grandma will have to live with the castles and unicorns.

Krista Turns 8!!

Because I'm not much of a party person, I really haven't been that fair to my kids.
It doesn't help that they seem to get more then they need anyway. So when they were smaller, I decided we would party on "special" b-days. 5, 8, 12, and maybe 16. So this was Krista's big year for a party. As you can imagine she had all kinds of wonderful things she wanted to do. The price was getting a bit out of control. We finally decided on a chef party. We were pretty busy the week of her birthday, but we decided to squeeze it in anyway. We invited 10 of her friends to come to the house on Thurs the 11th of Sept. That morning we went to get her ears pierced. She was so excited and so brave. I remember how bad it hurt when I had it done 30+ years ago. She did really good and didn't only let a few tears come out. At 4:30 we had her friends come and we designed aprons. We dazzled them and had markers to write on them. I had earlier in the day made up some Pizza crust and pre-baked them. So after our aprons were done we set out to make our own pizzas. We had all kinds of toppings to put on. When everyone was done creating their masterpiece, we opened presents while they baked. Then we had pizza and played outside until it was time to go home. I was tired at the end, but it was fun and I still had enough energy to go play volleyball. When I got home from playing volleyball, Krista ran outside to tell me while doing something her earring fell out. I quickly ran in the house, washed my hands and went to work on getting the earring back in. No luck, the back had already closed. After working on it for about 1/2 hour Kirk came in and tried to help. We finally gave up after 45 min. and sent her to bed. I took her over the next morning to have them fix it, she was not going to let them touch her ear again. We bribed, begged, and finally after 1 hour, yes 1 hour; it took 3 of us to hold her down and just do it. She was screaming and yelling,kicking, you name it. We caused quit the scene. But it's done and they look great.

Thought it was pretty cute!

Thought it was pretty cute of Krista, she got tired of picking up her friends trash that they seem to leave in her room. I walked by her room one night and started to laugh at the note she left on her door. It very nicely says "throw your trash and band-aids away." She hates to pick up others trash of any kind. Maybe I should leave notes around the house. Wonder if it would work?

Justin Receives his Eagle

August 24th Justin received his Eagle Scout Award. We had a really good turn out, His Scouts leaders said some really nice things about him, and he presented his Grandpa with a mentor pin. It was a huge success! His goal was to have it before he turned 14, he had his Eagle Board of Review one month after his 14th birthday. Job well done, Justin.

School has started!!

Krista and Jared started the Monday we got back from St. George, It was a little different having them start that soon, I could have used a couple of weeks to play. Justin played another soccer tournament and again his team took the gold. They are looking good. Next big tournament is State Cup which we hope to win. I'm not sure where Region is but last year it was in Hawaii.
We took on another big project of moving the shed. We (I sound like I helped) the men, moved it from the north side of our yard to the so. side of the yard. It took 9men about an hour to move it, then it's taken Kirk many, many hours to get it square enough to bolt down. But it's down now and not being moved again.

Can you believe it's August?

I can't believe July came and went with out much notice. We were so busy at our house we didn't have time to think.
July 3 we left for a 10 day vacation. We drove as far as Missoula Montana on the 3rd of July. Saw some old friends on mine, and found Jelly Stone Park. We camped the night in Jelly Stone and then on the 4th we drove up to Glacier National Park. What a sight!! We spent 2 nights camping in Glacier, then drove 5 hours across the border into Canada. We stayed in the condo in Canmore, which is just outside of Banff (Canada's National Park). We spent Sun.-Sat at the condo, swimming, hiking, Kirk even rented a mt. bike for a while, I took the kids horse back riding. We took a couple of canoes out on one of the lakes and had a great time. We saw some black bears, big horn sheep, and some deer. We did some shopping, and went to the Calgary stampeed. It poured rain of us, that day so we didn't see much of the redeo or wagon pull, but it was still fun. Sat. the 12th we drove 10 hours and stopped outside of Butte, Montana where we camped a night before driving the other 7 hours. We got home in time to have Justin at his Eagle Board of Review, and a Eagle Court of Honor for 3 of Kirk's young men. We were home for a few days and then we left on thurs. the 17th to do a campout with some of our friends. We went up to Smithmoorehouse. We had a lot of fun. Did a little fishing, and swimming in the lake.

The mon. before (July 14th) Justin was helping a soccer store move location and had a shelf drop on his toe. He was suppose to go to Scout camp on Tues. but the Dr. said he couldn't go. He wasn't to happy with her. She ended up pulling his toe nail off and putting 15 stiches in his big toe. He ended up going up to camp late, and had a great time. He kept his toe clean and dry and wore a funny shoe, but that didn't stop him from taking 2nd place in the rock wall climb. So after everyone was home again from camping, we stayed home a few days and then left for Potter's Ponds for Kirk's Family campout.



We camped thur and Fri. nights with the Phillips (about 35 of us) and then drove Sat. to St. George for Jeff's baby blessing and baptism of his kids.
We drove home on Sun. so I could get ready to go to Girls Camp on Tues morning. I got home from camp in time to shower and head to Park City with Justin for a soccer tournament. We spent Fri. and Sat. in Park City and brought home the Gold. We were home again for a couple of days and Kirk took off for Priest Camp. He'll be gone until Sat. and then I think we're done.




I decided it's a good thing I don't mind sleeping in a tent, (my trailer is better), because I spent as many nights in a tent as in my own bed the month of July. Here's some pictures from all our big trips. Enjoy!

True Vacation

We (Kirk and I) went to Washington DC the middle of June. Kirk was in a conference mon, tues, and wed. so I did a lot of playing. Mon. Kirk decided not to do the golf tour and went into town with me. We learned to ride the metro and catch the bus. We saw the air/space musium and wanted to see where everyone gets their big bucks from. However the tickets were sold out and we didn't go there. We walked through part of the Halacaust and had lunch then Kirk went back to his conference and I stayed and did a lot more walking. I finished my day around 5:30 and went to find Kirk.





Tues. I waited the morning out at the hotel and then Kirk and I went on a tour of the capital. We really enjoyed that. We found some dinner and then went on a night tour of all the monuments. That was really neat.





Wed. I headed back downtown and went to Arlington. What a sight! I was so moved by the whole thing. I watched the changing of the gaurds and that was very interesting. I took the metro back and made one stop to see the White House. We got a car and then drove down to Richmond so Kirk could work Thurs and Fri.




Thurs. I asked how to get to Williamsberg and the hotel host sent me to the shopping mall in Williamsberg. Anyone that knows me, knows that wasn't the highlight of my trip. I tried to old town but got lost so when I found the freeway I just headed back to where I knew where Kirk was. The people at the office had Kirk and I drive back down to old town to have dinner. It was about 45 min. drive both ways.






Fri. I drove back down and found old town. I could have spent days there. I really enjoy that time in history. I finally after many years got the piece together. It's no longer a scattered puzzle. Fri after work we drove up to our friends house and stayed with them. They use to be in our ward and moved back to Ashburn Va. in Dec. It was fun to see them and visit with them. They took us to the temple Sat. morning before we flew home.